Is it Possible to do An Animation Course Without Knowing the Drawing?

Animators combine their artistic and technical skills to build real-like characters. To become a skilled animator, you should join a professional Animation course.

This article discusses the relevance/importance of drawing to successfully pursue this course. It also highlights the importance of drawing skills in various animation areas/fields.

Are drawing skills important for pursuing an animation course?

Some international courses expect the interested students to possess a specific level of drawing ability which can be basic or intermediate. However, most of the courses run in India don’t expect the students to possess drawing skills for pursuing the course. A good course helps the students develop and hone their drawing skills with time.

To join this course you should be creative and imaginative. Most of the institutes offer degree and diploma courses in animation. The degree courses are longer in duration and more detailed.

How do the courses train young students who are animation amateurs?

These courses start right from the basics like holding the pencil. The courses teach how to draw on paper and also focus on the fine aspects like the use of light, shadows etc. A good course teaches the fundamentals and principles of drawing to help the students build a solid foundation. Thus the course helps the students develop/refine their drawing skills over a period of time.

A good course imparts knowledge of the elements used in animation before proceeding to the animation approaches. The fundamentals of each element are covered in detail before learning how to use/put them in animation.

Each animation technique is covered right from the basics. The courses conduct various practical studio sessions and live sessions to resolve the problems/doubts faced by the students and ensure that they are practically sound. Thus even the amateur students gain basic drawing skills to put their creativity to best use.

No matter which animation field you take up you should always know the principles and the basics of drawing, however, you may not know “how to draw” for some fields. A good course focuses on building you’re drawing skills and honing them over a period of time. Let us explore major areas/fields and the importance of drawing skills in them.

Importance of drawing skills in various animation fields/areas

Traditional 2D animation: In this form of animation one has to manually draw each frame on paper. If you have good drawing skills you can easily design/draw characters, create motion and maintain consistency between different animation frames. Drawing skills are quite important here.

2D computer animation: Drawing skills are not very important in this field since the characters are designed using a software application. However, it is important to understand the principles and basic concepts of drawing here. A good course focuses on these aspects.

3D computer animation: You should know how to draw if you wish to join 3D modeling. In 3D modeling, the animators draw an object’s front view and side view on paper before creating models on 3D software. However other 3D animation areas like rigging, 3D animation etc. demand knowledge of the basic drawing principles and concepts. A good course can help you develop your skills based on your interests.

Majority of the animation films and projects these days use 2D or 3D computer animation. Therefore it is important to understand the principles and concepts of drawing rather than knowing how to draw. However, if you know how to draw it can be an added advantage.

A good course can help you gain basic drawing skill sets even if you are a starter. You can become a successful animator even if you don’t have good drawing skills. You should just be creative and passionate and take up a course to help you with the rest.